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Multi-thread any command
For instance: $ find . -type f -name '*.wav' -print0 |xargs -0 -P 3 -n 1 flac -V8 will encode all .wav files into FLAC in parallel. Explanation of xargs flags: -P [max-procs]: Max number of invocations to run at once. Set to 0 to run all at once [potentially dangerous re: excessive RAM usage]. -n [max-args]: Max number of arguments from the list to send to each invocation. -0: Stdin is a null-terminated list. I use xargs to build parallel-processing frameworks into my scripts like the one here: http://pastebin.com/1GvcifYa

list files recursively by size

Get IPv4 of eth0 for use with scripts
Simple and easy. No regex, no search and replace. Just clean, built-in tools.

Get own public IP address
Returns your external IP address to the command line using only wget

floating point operations in shell scripts
using bc is for sissies. dc is much better :-D Polish notation will rule the world...

Show account security settings
Show account security settings

Recursive Ownership Change
Changing files ownership in a directory recursivley from a user to another

Prefix command output with duration for each line
Prefixes each output line with time between it and the previous one.

Rename files in batch

Search for a single file and go to it
This command looks for a single file named emails.txt which is located somewhere in my home directory and cd to that directory. This command is especially helpful when the file is burried deep in the directory structure. I tested it against the bash shells in Xubuntu 8.10 and Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.6


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